Heilongjiang Women's Prison Had Inmates Torture Practitioner Ms. Yu Qiuyan

Name: Yu Qiuyan
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Harbin
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 8th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, brainwashing, forced drug administration, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, torture, force-feedings, physical restraint, denial of toilet use

Practitioner Ms. Yu Qiuyan of Harbin is 60 years old. She was taken to the Heilongjiang Women's Prison in September 2009. To coerce her to abandon her Falun Gong practice, guards had inmates torture her. She suffered beatings, kicks, bamboo needles driven under her fingernails, standing punishment, torture tools, sleep deprivation, denial of toilet use, force-feedings, forced drug administration, and more. Here is her account of the persecution in her own words.

I am Yu Qiuyan, age 60. I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I am narrating the torture I endured after I was arrested and imprisoned.

I was arrested in a public place and held at the Harbin City No. 2 Detention Centre on April 8th, 2009. On September 23rd, I was sentenced and taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison, where I was tortured in the fifth isolation group of the ninth ward, also called boot camp.

Inmates in the fifth isolation group abused me in various ways. The purpose was to make me not give up my belief. They tortured me physically, and also mentally, with insults, scolding, threats, deceit, etc.

There were seven members in the fifth isolation group. Yu Shufan was the group lead. Other members were Wang Yatong, Li Shumei, Qu Xiaohua, Yu Liping, Li Shuangli, and Cao Kun. There were two temporary members from other groups, Wang Dongmei and Li Chunjuan. The former chief of the ninth ward was Zheng Ji, who was later transferred to the tenth ward. The new chief was Dong Lihua. The guard of the fifth isolation group had a family name of Fan. I am still frightened when recalling those days. Their behaviour was inhuman and cruel.

They forced me to do so-called study daily. They surrounded me, and coerced me to watch videos which defamed Falun Gong. Every day I was forced to sit motionlessly on a small plastic stool. It was called “post military status”. They made me sit from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. As a result, my buttocks festered. Two holes were formed, putrefied, and bleeding. The wounds stuck to my trousers. They opened whenever I was sitting or squatting down, and it took a long time before they closed. I was miserable. After about three weeks, they saw me reaching my limit and changed the torture to having me stand 17 hours daily. They said this showed that they cared about me. They applied medicine to my wounds. But on several occasions, they suddenly kicked me in the wound. I fell and my head hit the ground.

They abused me daily and took my blood pressure daily. They claimed that I had high blood pressure. Together, they pushed me to the ground, regardless of my objection, and force-fed me with unknown drugs. Several times, I experienced delusions afterward.

The group lead, Yu Shufan, was the former mayor of Zhaozhou County. She was imprisoned for an economic crime. All the torture that I suffered was conducted under her command. She berated me at will, sometimes grabbing one or a handful of bamboo knitting needles to pinch my face or chest, or slap my hands ruthlessly. She even taped my mouth shut.

November was very cold in this northern city. One day, around 8:00 a.m, the inmates pushed me to the ground together, stripped all my clothes off, and opened a window. I was frozen until the afternoon. I asked for my clothes many times, but they rejected my requests. Moreover, Yu Shufan said, “Let's have her walk around all 13 prison wards with nothing on.”

Inmate Wang Dongmei punched me on the left side of my chest. Every time she made a statement, she punched me once. She always punched me in the same spot. It was so painful that I dared not breathe for some time. She frequently kicked me.

Inmate Wang Yatong grasped my shoulders and pressed downward. Then she fiercely hit my stomach and belly with her knees. She grasped my hair and dragged me off the ground, then threw me to the ground. My hair was pulled out and fell all over the floor. She was overweight and had a ruthless look. To suit their needs, they did all kind of bad deeds.

Inmate Qu Xiaohua cruelly beat my ears. She once wrote a note which cursed at people and pasted it on the TV, then forced me to read it. I ripped it off. They all came to me, grasped my hair, beat me, kicked me, and put their hands inside my clothes to pinch me. She used dirty words to slander Falun Gong and its founder.

Inmate Li Shumei often kicked me. When she was assigned to watch me in the evening, she did not leave me alone even when she was soaking her feet in hot water. She used knitting needles to stab my arms and legs.

Inmate Li Shuanli grasped my shoulders and pressed me downward when I was sitting on the small stool and bleeding from my buttocks. They often hit my head and ears. As a result, pus flew out of my inner ears, and my hearing deteriorated.

Inmate Cao Kun stepped on my toes, which were purulent. She stepped with force. It was so painful that I cried aloud. Yu Shufan forbade me from crying and had others push me into the restroom.

One day they did not allow me to use the toilet for 10 plus hours. They made me stand the whole night. I fainted, fell to the ground and broke the spittoon beside me. They did not allow me to have any sleep for four straight nights, and had me stand for 42 hours without a break. My limbs were swollen. I was not able to bend my hands, arms, feet or legs. I repeatedly fell on the ground and needed great effort just to stand up again. My toes and the tops of my feet suppurated, revealing bones inside. I was not able to walk.

They used all means to torture me, to compel me to give in. They restrained me with a belt, tying my arms behind me to the ladder of the bed, and tying my legs together to the leg of the bed. They tied me this way 17 hours a day for seven days. I later learned that using restraining belts requires a guard's permission.

I was beyond my endurance, so I went on a hunger strike for 8 days. They brutally force-fed me. They pushed me to the ground and inserted 2 rubber tubes into my nostrils to my stomach. Drugs were added into the food, stirring the tubes in my stomach. There was bloody phlegm after I was force-fed.

The “transformed” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] former practitioner Li Chunjuan often hit me using her fists and knitting needles. She even cursed Falun Gong and its founder.

What I endured was so cruel that it is beyond imagination.

People involved in persecution:

Bai Yingxian, warden of Heilongjiang Women's Prison: +86-451-86639066 (Office)
Shao Jianming, deputy warden of Heilongjiang Women's Prison: +86-451-86618177 (Office)
Yu Xiaoping, deputy warden of Heilongjiang Women's Prison: +86-451-86636266 (Office)

Wang Xiaoli, chief of the seventh ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison: +86-15945663455 (Mobile)
Wang Xiaoli, deputy chief of the seventh ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison: +86-15846381981 (Mobile)
Chang Xiaoli, chief of the t”ransformation” ward of Heilongjiang Women's Prison: +86-15004634488 (Mobile)

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/10/28/248432.html